{"id":641437,"date":"2026-03-24T21:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/641437\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T21:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:53:22","slug":"yankees-option-luis-gil-rule-5-pick-cade-winquest-makes-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/641437\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Option Luis Gil; Rule 5 Pick Cade Winquest Makes Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees will option right-hander Luis Gil<\/a> to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post<\/a>. They have four off days in the first 12 days of the 2026 season, so they\u2019ll be able to skip the fifth starter spot a couple times. Gil will head to Scranton to continue working on regular rest and will presumably be summoned when the Yanks first need a fifth starter (or if there\u2019s an injury elsewhere in the rotation). Optioning Gil also frees up an extra bullpen spot, which will be filled by Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest<\/a>, per the Post\u2019s Jon Heyman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gil, 27, was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2024 but pitched just 57 innings last year due to a lat strain. He posted a 3.32 ERA during those 57 healthy frames but did so with diminished velocity and strikeout and walk rates that were nowhere close to his 2024 levels. Gil punched out 26.8% of opponents against a 12.1% walk rate in \u201924 but fanned only 16.8% of batters faced with a 13.5% walk rate in \u201925.<\/p>\n

This is Gil\u2019s final minor league option year, although if he\u2019s recalled within the first 20 days of the season, the option won\u2019t technically have to be used. He\u2019s under club control for three more seasons, through 2028, and would need to spend fewer than 99 days on the roster to push that free agent trajectory back by a season. He\u2019s pitched in six games this spring, totaling 19 1\/3 innings with a 4.66 ERA and terrific strikeout and walk rates of 29.6% and 6.2%, respectively. However, he\u2019s also been rocked for six homers (2.79 HR\/9) in that time, so his command within the strike zone clearly could use a bit of refinement.<\/p>\n

As for Winquest, he\u2019ll make his first big league roster after allowing eight earned runs on 13 hits and four walks with eight punchouts in 10 spring innings. He sits 94-96 mph with a heater that tops out around 98 mph. A 2022 eighth-round pick by the Cardinals, he\u2019s worked primarily as a starting pitcher in the minors and should be able to give the Yankees a long relief option as a result. If they manage to navigate the entire season with Winquest on the roster, he\u2019ll become optionable and can give the Yankees an interesting depth option in the rotation or bullpen for years to come.<\/p>\n

Prior to Winquest\u2019s selection back in December, it had been more than a decade since the Yankees even made a pick in the Rule 5 Draft, let alone broke camp with said pick on their roster. Technically, the last Yankees Rule 5 pick to survive spring training was righty Brad Meyers back in 2011, though he was on the team\u2019s injured list due to a shoulder issue that popped up during spring training. He missed the entire season and was sent back to the Nationals the next winter. The last Yankees Rule 5 pick to actually play a game was first baseman Josh Phelps<\/a>, way back in 2007.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only natural that the Yankees, a perpetual win-now club with immense payrolls, hasn\u2019t carried a Rule 5 pick \u2014 or even\u00a0made a Rule 5 selection \u2014 since 2011. It\u2019s easier for rebuilding and\/or small-market clubs to acquiesce to the roster restrictions inherently associated with Rule 5 pickups. Such clubs have an easier time carrying an inexperienced player who can\u2019t be sent to the minor leagues, and those teams also aren\u2019t likely to fill out the roster with veteran free agents in the same manner as clubs of the Yankees\u2019 ilk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees will option right-hander Luis Gil to Triple-A Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,38164,2277],"class_list":["post-641437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-cade-winquest","tag-luis-gil"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116286377881968503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}